Carton box having sections of flaps for easily forming handles



. Oct. 20, 1970 RINNOSUKE SUSUKI ETAL 3,534,899

CARTON BOX HAVING SECTIONS OF FLAPS FOR EAS'ILY FORMING HANDLES Filed April 2, 1969 2 Sheet -Sheet 1 Oct. 20, 1970 RINNOSUKE SUSUKI ET 3,534,899

CARTON BOX HAVING SECTIONS OF FLAPS FOR EASILY FORMING HANDLES Filed April 2, 1969 FIG. 5

United States Patent 3,534,899 CARTON BOX HAVING SECTIONS OF FLAPS FOR EASILY FORMING HANDLES Rinnosuke Susuki, Tokyo, Hiroshi Hoshi, Chiba-ken, and Takashi Ohshita, Tokyo, Japan, assignors to Raion Yushi Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, Japan Filed Apr. 2, 1969, Ser. No. 812,647 Claims priority, application Japan, Apr. 4, 1968, 43/27,123 Int. Cl. B65d /46 US. Cl. 229-52 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A carton box having a pair of top flaps extending inwardly from two opposite parallel edges of the top side thereof and being provided with sections for easily forming handles, respectively, is obtained by adherently attaching one of the two top flaps to the other so as to cover the latter but leaving the handle-forming sections of these two flaps unadhered to each other, each of said sections being provided with an oblong opening for the passage of fingers therethrough and being adapted to be severed locally from its adjacent portion of the flap around the configuration of said section so that this section is pulled up along the folding line provided at the base thereof to form a handle, thus forming a pair of handles together with the other section which is fabricated in the same way.-

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention The present invention is concerned with carton boxes, and more particularly, it relates to a carton box which can be easily converted to a portable type by utilizing the handle-forming sections provided in a pair of opposing top flaps to form handles.

Description of the prior art Conventional carton boxes intended for containing products such as synthetic detergents, foodstuff and drugs in the form of powder were not provided with handles or sections of flaps for forming handles for the transportation of these boxes. These boxes were usually bound or tied around them with tough twines in such a way that the boxes were carried along by persons in the form of being suspended from the grips of the hands of these persons. Or, alternatively, a bag had to be prepared to put the box therein to be carried along. To eliminate these inconveniences, there was developed a carton box of the type that a pair of loop-shaped handles made of strips of a synthetic resin such as vinyl chloride were attached to the sides of the box for the convenience of transportation. However, a carton box of this type had the disadvantage and drawback that the region of the carton box where the loop-shaped handles were attached had to be made with a paper material which was fairly thick and good in quality to give sufficient tearing strength. This resulted in an increase in the overall manufacturing cost of such boxes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is, therefore, the primary object of the persent invention to eliminate the foregoing inconveniences, drawbacks and disadvantages of the boxes of the prior art and to provide an improved carton box having handle sections in the opposing top flaps and having sufficient strength in these sections and being manufactured at a relatively low cost.

Another object of the present invention is to provide 3,534,899 Patented Oct. 20, 1970 a carton box having handle-forming sections which are formed in a pair of opposing top flaps and which can be easily fabricated into handles as desired after the box has been built up from a sheet of carton material.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a carton box which will not lose its own air-tightness after the handle is fabricated from the opposing top flaps and which, accordingly, is most suited for containing and storing hygroscopic powders such as synthetic detergents.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawing will become apparent by reading the following detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic explanatory representation showing a perspective view, of the essential part of the arrangement of the top of a carton box having opposing two top flaps embodying the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic perspective representation showing the handle-forming section provided in the op posing top flap of the built-up box;

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic perspective representation showing the box with fabricated handles ready for use;

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic plan view of the top of the box in the state where the opposing two top fiaps are opened and developed to show the manner in which the underlying flaps are bonded to each other with strip of adhesive applied along their central end portions;

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic representation showing a vertical sectional view of another example in which the underlying opposing lateral flaps are bonded to each other along their central end portions; and

FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic explanatory representation showing a plan view of the adhering portions of the auxiliary flap in still another example.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In FIG 1 of the drawing, the letter B represents in general a carton box or a container. Reference numeral 1a and 1b represent underlying opposing flaps, respectively. Numeral 2 represents a top lower flap and numeral 3 represents a top upper flap extending inwardly from two opposite edges of the top side of the box and adapted to be superposed over the underlying lateral fiaps when the box is built up.

The top flaps having the handle-forming sections embodying the present invention are formed in the following manner.

As the first step, there is formed, inside the area of the lower flap 2, a cutting line 21a for the section which will form a handle 21, said cutting line comprising alternately disposed cuts and recessed dots so that this portion of the carton material can be easily cut up to a predetermined extent along this cutting line when it is intended to fabricate a handle. There is also formed a folding line 23 at the base of said section as indicated by the two-dot chain line in the drawing. In an intermediate portion located in the area of said section defined by said cutting line and said folding line, there is formed a finger-engaging oblong opening 22 for passing the fingers of the user therethrough.

In the same manner as described above in connection with the lower flap 2, there is formed, in the upper fiap 3 a cutting line consisting of alternately disposed cuts and recessed dots to partly define the section of forming the second handle 31, and also there is formed a folding line 35 at the base of this section. In the handle-forming section of this upper flap 3, however, there is formed, in the same manner as for the handle-forming section inwardly of said section a cutting line, and a folding line 34 to define the area which will be cut open along said cutting line and bent along the folding line to form a finger-engaging edge 33 around the resulting oblong opening for the passage of the fingers of the user therethrough when it is intended to fabricate the handle. When it is intended to carry this box after these two handle-forming sections have been fabricated into handles, the free end edge portion-of this bent strip carton material extending from the upper edge of the hand-engaging oblong opening 33 is pushed into the oblong opening 22 is bent upwardly over the upper edge of the finger-engaging oblong opening 22 of the handle-forming section 21 of the lower flap 2 to thereby protect the users fingers from the direct engagement with the edges of these openings when the handles are gripped together by the fingers of the user. A notch 32 is provided in the portion of the top flap 3 adjacent and midway of the cutting line for the handle-forming section of said flap 3. This notch 32 is provided there for receiving the tip of a finger in fabricating the handles to facilitate the operation to pull up the section which will be fabricated into a handle 31.

In building up the container by closing the flaps on the top side, the operation begins with the application of a strip of adhesive to the central free end portion of one 1b of the pair of underlying opposing lateral flaps. Thereafter, the other 1a of this pair of lateral opposing flaps is attached onto the first lateral flap 1b to be adhered thereto in the foremost end portions 11 as shown in FIG. 4. Then, the adhesive is applied to the upper surfaces of these two lateral underlying flaps 1b and 1a which have been hus connected to each other already. Onto these adhesive-coated surfaces of the lateral underlying opposing flaps is attached the top lower flap 2 to be adhered thereto. On the other hand, the area indicated by a number of dots on the underside, in the drawing, of the top upper flap 3 excluding the section 31 intended for forming the handle is coated with an adhesive so that this upper flap 3 is adherently attached to the upper surface of the lower flap 2 to complete the closure of this side of the box in the manner as shown in FIG. 2. When it is intended to carry this box, it is only necessary to engage the tip of a finger into the notch 32 and to pull up the handleforming section 31 while locally cutting the edges of said section along the cutting line provided there, in the manner as shown in FIG. 3, and thereafter to pull up the handle-forming section 21 of the lower flap 2 in the same manner, and then to bend the finger-engaging strip 33 so that the free end and edge portion thereof is inserted into oblong opening 22 of the other mating handle-forming section 21 and bent over the upper edge of the oblong opening 22, and then to insert fingers first through the oblong opening 33 of the upper flap 3 and further through the oblong opening 21 of the lower flap to grip the pair of handles from under the finger protecting strip 33 already bent. These handles 21 and 31 thus fabricated are such that they both extend from the opposite edges on the top of the container integrally with the carton material forming the adjacent opposite sides. Therefore, even when it occurs that the carton material located in the two regions of the top of the box and extending from the bases of the handle members 21 and 31 should tear or break along the phantom lines In and n (indicated by dotted lines in FIG. 3) when the box is lifted from the floor by the person who carries it with him, such a breakage or tearing of the carton material in said regions of the box could extend up to the edge lines constituting the border edge lines of this top side from the adjacent opposite two sides of the box, but there will take place no further progressive breakage or tearing of the carton material to spread onto these adjacent sides of the box.

When it is intended to get access to the contents stored in the container, this intention will be accomplished either by first pulling each of the handle members 31 and 21 outwardly in the opposite directions until the portions of the carton material from the base lines of these handles and extending toward the aforesaid opposite edge lines tears up to the edge lines of this side of the box and then by opening the bonded portion 11 of the underlying lateral flaps 1a and lb, or alternatively, by providing one of the underlying lateral opposing flaps 1a and 1b with an appropriate dispensing outlet.

FIG. 5 shows another example of the manner in which the central or the proximal free end portions of the underlying lateral flaps 1a and 1b are bonded to each other. In this example, the proximal end portions of these two flaps are bent downwardly, substantially perpendicular to the directions in which these flaps extend from their base lines at the opposite edges of the same side of the box, to thereby form the downwardly bent portions 11a and 11b. The surface of at least one of these bent portions is coated with an adhesive, and these two portions are brought together to face each other and are bonded together to form an inner sealed joint.

In still another example, there is applied an auxiliary flap 4 adherently to the lower face of the lower flap 2 without using the underlying lateral flaps 1a and 1b in the manner as shown in FIG. 6 in order to further enhance the effect of air-tight seal of the carton box. In the same drawing, the cutting line 21a for the handle-forming section of the superposed top lower flap is indicated by a two-dot chain line for the sake of clarity. It should be noted, however, that the cutting line 41 which is intended to cut off this auxiliary flap to provide a dispensing opening is located inwardly of the aforesaid cutting line 21a, while the region of the adhesive coating indicated by a number of dots is located outside said cutting line 21a.

The carton box according to the present invention is of the aforedescribed arrangement. As such, it is appropriate to form, as the preparatory procedure, the required cutting lines, folding lines and the notch in the face of the sheet of carton in the stage prior to building up the carton box from a sheet of carton. Such a preparatory procedure can be accomplished easily in a single step. These cutting lines, folding lines and notch which are formed in the face of the carton box material either before or after the building up of the carton box will never become hindrances when the boxes are stacked or stored. Furthermore, when it is intended to carry the box, the handles can be fabricated easily by simply pulling up the strips along the predetermined cutting lines, and thus, the objects of the present invention which have been stated in the earlier part of this specification can be satisfactorily attained.

What is claimed is:

1. A carton box having two opposing top flaps each being provided with a section for easily forming a handle, comprising an upper flap and a lower flap which extend inwardly from two opposite edges of the top side of said box, each of said flaps having a section for forming a handle and being provided with an oblong opening through which the fingers of the user are passed to engage the edges defining said oblong opening, said section being arranged so as to be locally cut around the periphery of said section to be pulled open along a folding line formed at the base thereof, and underlying lateral opposing flaps extending inwardly from the remaining two opposite edges of said top side, the central free end portions of said underlying opposing lateral flaps being bonded to each other, said upper and lower flaps being bonded to the upper surfaces of said underlying lateral flaps excluding the areas of said handle-forming sections thereof, the folding line of the handle-forming section of the upper flap being substantially laterally displaced from the folding line of the handle-forming section of the lower flap so that said handle-forming sections, when folded up along the respective folding lines form two physically separated handles extending upwardly toward one another.

2. A carton box having two opposing top flaps each being provided with a section for easily forming a handle,

comprising an upper flap and a lower flap which extend inwardly from two opposite edges of the top side of said box, each of said flaps having a section for forming a handle and being provided with an oblong opening through which the fingers of the user are passed to engage the edges defining said oblong opening, said section being arranged so as to be locally cut around the periphery of said section to be pulled open along a folding line formed at the base thereof, and underlying lateral opposing flaps extending inwardly from the remaining two opposite edges of said top side, the central free end portions of said underlying opposing lateral flaps being bent downwardly and bonded together to form an inner seal of said box, said upper and lower flaps being bonded to the upper surfaces of said underlying lateral flaps excluding the areas of said handle-forming sections thereof, the folding line of the handle-forming section of the upper flap being substantially laterally displaced from the folding line of the handle-forming section of the lower flap so that said handle-forming sections, when folded up along the respective folding lines form two physically separated handles extending upwardly toward one another.

3. A carton box having two opposing top flaps each being provided with a section for easily forming a handle,

comprising an upper flap and a lower flap which extend inwardly from two opposite edges of the top side of said box, each of said flaps having a section for forming a handle and being provided with an oblong opening through which the fingers of the user are passed to engage the edges defining said oblong opening, said section being arranged so as to be locally cut around the periphery of said section to be pulled open along a folding line fonned at the base thereof, and underlying lateral opposing flaps extending inwardly from the remaining two opposite edges of said top side, said underlying opposing lateral flaps being provided with an auxiliary flap bonded to the underside of at least one of said underlying lateral flaps to be cut off to provide a dispensing opening, said underlying opposing lateral flaps being bonded to each other over said auxiliary flap, said upper and lower flaps being bonded to the upper surfaces of said underlying lateral flaps excluding the areas of said handle-forming sections thereof, the folding line of the handle-forming section of the upper flap being substantially laterally displaced from the folding line of the handle-forming section of the lower flap so that said handle-forming sections, when folded up along the respective folding lines form two physically separated handles extending upwardly toward one another.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,693,310 11/1954 Stopper 22952 DAVID M. BOCKENEK, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 22937 

